Short Waves and
Vorticity
- Short waves at upper levels are
often detected as vorticity maxima in the
upper-level flow
- So, what is vorticity?
- Vorticity is a measure of a parcels
"spin".
- If a parcel spins
counterclockwise, it has positive
vorticity
- If a parcel spins
clockwise, it has negative vorticity
- Vorticity around the vertical axis
is called "vertical vorticity"
- There are two primary sources of
"vertical vorticity"
- planetary
vorticity
- relative
vorticity
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